Today is a sad day, the anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople, thus ending the last remnant of the Roman Empire, which had existed, if one accepts the traditional founding date of 753 BC, for 2,206 years. On May 29th, 1453, the city fell to the jihad armies of Sultan Mehmet II. Seven thousand defenders behind the city’s ancient walls couldn’t long hold out against an army at least 11 times their size and armed with siege cannons. The last Emperor, Constantine XI, fell defending his throne to the end. According to Runciman, whose Fall of Constantinople is the best book I’ve read on the topic, legend has it that the Emperor removed his regalia of office and died defending one of the city’s gates: his body was never found. Greek legend tells that an angel turned him to a pillar of marble and placed him in a hidden cavern, where he waits to return at his capital’s liberation.

Someone should tell the author that it’s 555 years. But who am I to quibble over details?

I’m sure there are Greek nationalists who take this seriously, but, sorry. Tragic as the city’s fall was, five centuries makes it a done deal.

Revanchist movements aren’t unique to Byzantine buffs, naturally. Palestinians and their Arab exploiters brothers for so long and so steadily pushed the myth of the nakba and the forced Palestinian expulsion from what is now Israel, that many accept it as unvarnished truth. From 1871 to 1914, France dreamed of recovering Alsace-Lorraine from the Germans. Chicano nationalists work themselves into ecstasy at the thought of returning the US Southwest to Mexico — Viva Aztlan! More threateningly, jihadists lay claim to the whole of the ancient Islamic empire, from Spain to Indonesia, as Allah-granted parts of the Muslim umma: theirs to reconquer.

About the only group I think has a real claim to a "right of return" are the Jews: Israel hasn’t been perfect since its foundation, but few people have suffered as much for as long as have the Jews, nor have many given the world as much. If anyone has a moral claim to an ancient home, it is they.

With that exception, however, revanchism and other forms of railing against the past gain one nothing except grief. After enough time has passed, it’s better to accept reality and look to the future.